November 6: Benjamin elected president without popular vote, UN ends relations with South Africa

November 6, 11:41 AMPortland History ExaminerNatalie Leavitt

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Maine Fast Fact: Maine has over 21,000 miles of public highways, more than any other New England state.

Births:

• 1814: Adolphe Sax, Belgian musical instrument designer, inventor of the saxophone
• 1851: Charles Dow, American journalist, co-founder of Dow Jones & Company
• 1861: James Naismith, Canadian sports coach, inventor of basketball
• 1893: Edsel Ford, American president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 until 1943, son of Henry Ford
• 1939: Michael Schwerner, American civil rights activist
• 1946: Sally Field, American actress
• 1948: Glenn Frey, American musician, singer, songwriter and actor, co-founding member of the band The Eagles
• 1955: Maria Shriver, American journalist, wife of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
• 1967: Rebecca Schaeffer, American actress known for her role in the television series My Sister Sam, changed anti-stalking laws in California
• 1968: Jerry Yang, Chinese-American entrepreneur, co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc.
• 1970: Ethan Hawke, American actor
• 1972: Rebecca Romijn, American actress
• 1988: Emma Stone, American actress

Deaths:

• 1790: James Bowdoin, American political leader, governor of Massachusetts, namesake of Bowdoin College in Maine
• 1893: Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, Russian composer

History:

• 1528: Spanish Conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot in Texas.
• 1844: The Dominican Republic adopts its first constitution.
• 1860: President Abraham Lincoln defeats three other candidates and wins the U.S. presidency.
• 1861: Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
• 1869: The first intercollegiate football game is played between Rutgers College and Princeton University (then known as the College of New Jersey), Rutgers wins 6-4 (although the rules were more of a mixture of rugby and soccer, it was a forerunner for what became known as football).
• 1888: Republican Benjamin Harrison is elected president, defeating incumbent President Grover Cleveland in the Electoral College even though Cleveland won the popular vote (much like the 2000 election).
• 1900: Incumbent President William B. McKinley wins the presidency, defeating Democrat William Jennings Bryan.
• 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover is elected president, defeating Democrat Alfred E. Smith.
• 1941: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for the second time during his 30-year rule, stating that the Germans had lost 4.5 million soldiers so far and a Soviet victory was near during World War II.
• 1944: The radioactive chemical element Plutonium is first produced and used in the Fat Man atomic bomb that is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.
• 1947: Meet the Press debuts on television.
• 1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower is elected to a second term, defeating Democrat Adlai E. Stevenson.
• 1962: The United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution to condemn South Africa’s racist apartheid policies and tells UN members to end all economic and military relations with South Africa.
• 1965: The United States and Cuba agree to begin an airlift for all Cubans who want to go the U.S.
• 1971: The United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb on Amchitka Island in the North Pacific Ocean.
• 1985: It is revealed that President Ronald Reagan has authorized a shipment of arms to Iran during the Iran-Contra Affair.
• 2001: Billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg is elected New York City mayor.

November 6 is Constitution Day in the Dominican Republic, celebrating the adoption of its first constitution in 1844. Today is Swedishness Day in Finland, a type of Flag Day created in 1908 to strengthen the Swedish-speaking Finnish community. It is a day to celebrate Finland-Swedish culture and heritage, held on the same day that King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden died in 1632. Today is also Constitution Day in the countries of Tajikistan and Tatarstan.